Open-loop prepaid debit cards are a fast growing segment of the financial services industry. Also referred to as prepaid credit cards or general-purpose reloadable (“GPR”) cards, a cardholder of a GPR card spends money which has been “pre-loaded” on the card. For example, the cardholder may purchase the GPR card in a retail outlet, such as a grocery store, convenience store, or department store, and load the card with value using cash or another payment method at the time of checkout. Unlike store gift cards, however, the GPR card may be used in a variety of retail locations based on the payment network associated with the card. The payment network may define the rules that determine where the GPR card may be used, how the transactions are processed, and what entities are involved in the processing of the transactions.
The value of the GPR card is not physically stored on the card itself. Instead the card number may uniquely identify a record in a centralized database of a program manager where the balance of the card is recorded. The program manager, may further provide the retail outlets with the physical GPR cards for sale, process payment transactions from the payment network(s) for the cards, handle settlement and other aspects of the relationship with the issuing bank, as well as provide services to the cardholder of the cards, such as a Web portal for management of the card or re-loading of the card's value.
Online stored-value accounts may be offered by payment services providers. Online stored-value accounts may provide online shoppers with a convenient and centralized location for maintaining a stored value, which can be used as a source of payment for goods and services purchased online. Online payment services providers may also provide merchants with an easy-to-implement method of accepting online payments as well as associated services such as an online shopping cart and/or a standard and familiar checkout process, without the merchants having to be concerned with the complexities of processing credit card, debit card, and GPR card payments, privacy concerns, bank settlements, and the like. Unlike GPR cards, however, the processing of payment transactions are handled by the payment services provider instead of a payment network, and as such may be “closed-loop,” i.e. only available for payment to online merchants that are integrated with or subscribe to the payment services of the payment services provider.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the disclosure made herein is presented.